Billionaire Buffett to give away his wealth

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to be the biggest beneficiary

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Billionaire Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, has announced plans to give the bulk of his personal wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway
BRK.A, -0.29%
and the world's second richest man intends to make annual stock donations throughout his lifetime to the charity founded by the world's richest man. Buffett also pledged annual donations to four other foundations either run by or named after his close family members.

According to letters posted on the Berkshire Hathaway Web site, Buffett is donating 85% of his stock to five foundations, and the Gates Foundation will receive five-sixths of the total. The other charity beneficiaries are the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Susan A. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation.

"I greatly admire what the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is accomplishing and want to materially expand its future capabilities," Buffett wrote in one of the letters. Read the letter.

"The first year's gift will permit an increase in BMG's annual giving of about $1.5 billion," he continued. "In the future, I expect the value of my annual gifts to trend higher in an irregular but eventually substantial manner."

Berkshire Hathaway officials weren't available for comment Sunday.

Buffett, with a personal fortune estimated at about $44 billion, plans to earmark 10 million B shares
BRK.B, -0.77%
for contribution to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and donate 5% of them each year, according to his letter.

As of July 1, the Gates Foundation will receive an estimated $1.5 billion from Buffett's 2006 contribution of 500,000 B shares, based on Friday's closing price of $3,071.01, according to a report in Fortune magazine. In the article, Buffett, 75, also said he is in good health.

Buffett's letter set three conditions for his continued donations: He wants one of the Gateses to remain active in the foundation's policy-setting, his gifts to remain legally free of gift and other taxes and for the value of his annual gift to add to the spending of 5% of the charity's net assets.

His move comes on the heels of Microsoft
MSFT, -1.70%
Chairman and Co-Founder Bill Gates' recent announcement that he's going to wind down his day-to-day duties at the software giant so he can devote more time to the foundation. Gates said June 15 he will transition out of his role over the next two years. See full story.

With assets approaching $30 billion, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the one of the richest philanthropic organizations in the world. Its mission is to improve global public health by targeting diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS that ravage third-world countries, and to bolster education and public libraries.

"We are awed by our friend Warren Buffett's decision to use his fortune to address the world's most challenging inequities, and we are humbled that he has chosen to direct a large portion of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation," the Gateses said in a prepared statement posted Sunday on the foundation's Web site.

"The impact of Warren's generosity will not be fully understood for decades. As we move forward with the work, we do so with a profound sense of responsibility," the Gateses added.

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